The Colorado Secretary of State determined that the Colorado personhood amendment has fallen 3,700 valid signatures short of qualifying for the ballot.

Upon review of the discarded signatures, the Colorado Personhood Coalition has determined that in many cases, entire petitions were discarded despite valid signatures and valid affidavits.

1-40-118 C.R.S. allows 30 days to file a protest. The Colorado Personhood Coalition has engaged election law specialist Shayne Madsen of the Jackson Kelly law firm.

"The law states that we have 30 days to file a challenge, and we fully intend to do so. Based on the Secretary of State's 5% sample, we are have calculated that we will be able to recover the signatures necessary to appear on the ballot," explained Gualberto Garcia Jones, J.D., legal analyst for Personhood USA. "This disqualification is by an extremely narrow number, and as we have seen thousands of valid voter signatures discarded unnecessarily, we will be filing a challenge to ensure that every Colorado voter's voice is heard, and that every signature counts."

The proposed amendment states "(1) Purpose. In order to affirm basic human dignity, be it resolved that the right to life in this constitution applies equally to all innocent persons. (2) Effect. The intentional killing of any innocent person is prohibited." The amendment goes on to detail the effects that the amendment will have on issues such as birth control, in vitro fertilization, medical treatment for the mother, and miscarriage. The full text is available at www.personhoodco.com.

Over 100,000 signatures were collected, and petitions were circulated by nearly one thousand five hundred volunteers.

"Other 2012 Colorado ballot initiatives had nearly two months longer than we did to collect signatures," continued Garcia Jones. "Because of a frivolous lawsuit from our opponents, we were denied the full petitioning time, yet we still collected over 112,000 signatures. After an amazing effort on the part of our volunteers, this narrow disqualification is something that we believe will be reversed. We did the work, we gathered the signatures despite a significant loss of time, and we will fight to ensure that every valid signature is counted."